Cozy Gaming Corner

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Welcome to the Cozy Zone, the corner of SG dedicated to sharing and discussing cozy games. Get yourself a blanket, some hot chocolate or herbal tea, get comfy in your chair and enjoy the good vibes and the good gibs too.

I'm certain most of you are familiar with the concept of "cozy gaming/games" by now, but to avoid any confusion here are some excerpts I stole from articles written by people who are better with words than me, which should give you the idea:

These kinds of games encourage players to take things slow and enjoy the cozier things in life, which is why they've gained a reputation for being 'cozy games'. While there isn't an official definition for what a cozy game is exactly, those that do fall under this categorization have a particular vibe that is easy to spot. Typically, a cozy game will be laid back, have minimal, if any, combat, an endearing art style, and will wrap its action around a wholesome story.
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Whether the ideal cozy game consists of task-based satisfaction or getting to project personal feelings onto a melancholy storyline, there are options suitable to gamers of all backgrounds. The genre is very flexible, populated with RPGs, platformers, point-and-click adventures, life sims, and much more. These are the games to play after a long day of work, on rainy days, and when you just don't feel like crawling out of bed.`
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The core idea behind [cozy gaming] is the combination of appealing colors, atmospheric music, and playability. In addition, a game should also be fun and relaxing, contributing to the experience that can be referred to as cozy.
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Cozy games are predominantly identified by the comfortable atmosphere, aesthetically pleasing design, and task-focused gameplay. Cozy games are not always easy or relaxing, though they can be.

Links: 1 2 3 4

With that out of the way and skipping the whole "in these hard times we all need more cozy time in our lives" preamble (heh), let's get straight to what the Cozy Zone is ~~supposed to be~~ about:

❣ My giveaways of cozy games. To be honest (at first) I just needed a place for my next gibs, as it so happened that I was in possession of some amount of keys for this particular type of games, but instead of going with just another one-time train I decided to make it an ongoing thread. So ~~for now~~ the plan is to do GAs for this thread with games of the cozy kind on a somewhat regular basis.

✽ Your giveaways of cozy games. Everyone is welcome to join me in making GAs for games that fit the theme. No strict guidelines, use your own discretion when deciding if the game is good for this thread. In general, fitting games usually have one or more of these tags on Steam: Relaxing / Family Friendly / Cozy / Wholesome / Cute / Comedy; and here are some tags that these games usually don't include: Violent / Gore / Survival / Psychological Horror / Hentai / Dark / War / Military / Dystopian (these are just some examples of some of the most popular tags). In any case, if a game seems cozy enough to you, feel free to give it away. Just make your GAs private (aka invite-only).
Special Cats tag exception: as a result of the FCDSCGC-2023 event, cats were proclaimed the mascot animal of our thread and thus any game that has a 'Cats' tag on Steam is allowed to be given away here, whether it's cozy or not.
Every active giveaway will be featured in the OP (if I'm around at the time it's running).

☯ General discussion of cozy games. Random cozy games discoveries, thoughts on latest games you've played, discounts alerts and everything else related to games of the cozy kind.

◒ Recommendations for cozy games. Do share your favorite games, well known or not. Hidden gems are especially welcome though, cause many niche games often go largely unnoticed.

✧ Cozy events. So, events have become a semi-regular occurrence in our thread, and I'm looking to make them an integral part of the Cozy Zone experience moving forward. If you want to host an event in the thread which requires some coordination or have an idea for a future event, please contact me on Steam; otherwise, feel free to post your cozy trains, celebratory GAs, puzzles and whatnot at any time. You can also contribute by either partially or fully sponsoring the prize pool and/or by donating cozy games for events (as I might struggle to fully cover these prize/GAs-wise on my own, so some help is always appreciated; again, contact me for this).

If you wish to just bump the thread, feel free to so, but keep in mind that the recommended way to bump is the cozy way, which is achieved by posting:
♦ pics of your adorable pets ♦ pics of your cozy gaming space ♦ pics of anything cozy or cute ♦ light-hearted memes ♦ links to relaxing music (make sure to check out our own cozy playlist ♫ too) ♦

One rule in this thread: good vibes only, so please let's make it comfy for everyone and keep the negativity to the minimum.

❦ Active giveaways ❦

from Ellendyl ⇝ Euro Truck Simulator 2 (lvl 2+)
❀ from s4k1s ⇝ 4 games cozy Cakeday train (lvl 1-2+) ❀

⋗ Current streak of consecutive days with at least one GA running has been going since: January 15, 2023 (approximately)

Previous giveaways and events: ⟲

Thanks to everyone who contributed with cozy giveaways and recommendations. ʕっᵔᴥᵔʔっ♡

View attached image.

cozy cats from one of our previous events

1 year ago*

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2,398 Comments

TragicBronson

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Good news, cozy people: we have two (2) trains arriving at the main station of Cozyville soon, offering recreational scenic journeys for a modest price. And that's it for the good news, now let's have the obligatory bad news: unfortunately, due to a rare and unusual scheduling mistake at the Capy Railroad Co. office, both trains will be leaving at the exact same time, which means that you can only get on one ride, and which one to take is up to you to decide.

On Platform ✿ : cat train ⥈ 4 carts ⥈ cuddly fluffy cats ⇝ relaxing journey through Catlands
On Platform ❀ : dog train ⥈ 4 carts ⥈ funny friendly dogs ⇝ joyous journey through Dog Island

The exact contents of the carts will remain mystery until all passengers (you) board their respective trains, although Capy Railroad Co. assured us that both trains would provide an equally fun ride for everyone. But what's that? You're asking how should you decide which one to get on to then? Well, I'm glad you asked. Because to help you decide we'll have a...

Friendly Cat vs. Dog Showdown at the Cozy Gaming Corner (🐈 FCDSCGC-2023 🐕)

It's the classic Dog vs. Cat matchup for the title of Supreme Cozy Mascot of the Cozy Zone for this year. Which of these two animals do the denizens of Cozyville prefer as their cozy companion? Which one will get the title? Let's find out.

Here's what you gotta do:
✧ First, have a deep good thonk as to which of two animals you find to be the cozier one, or just generally like more. Cat or Dog.
✧ Then, purchase a ticket to the respective train. To get a ticket you need to: post a comment below indicating which animal you chose and/or which train you'd like to get on (don't respond to this post with your comment though, make a separate comment); feel free to explain your choice if you wish. • Pay up: one ticket costs one extremely cozy pic/gif of a cat or a dog, depending on which one you chose (obviously, it has to match); you may post it in the same comment. A few moments later you shall find your ticket in your back pocket, capy-magic (if you don't have any back pockets, try looking in your sock). Just to make sure, you don't need to wait for any confirmation whatsoever before the next step.
✧ After that, join one of the following groups one Steam: Cat Train Group if you're team cat or Dog Train Group if you're team dog; just sent a request to join and you'll get accepted soon. Please only join the group after purchasing a ticket, though. These groups were created for technical purposes only and will be deleted after the event ends.
✧ Wait for the train to arrive, hop on and enjoy the cozy ride.

✦ Special rule for pets photos: pics/gifs of your pets aren't required to match the train theme, you can get a ticket to the train of your choice with a pic/gif of any animal, not just a cat or a dog. One could even apply for the cat train with a dog pic and vice versa if they so desire, hehe. But: it has to be your own pet (or at least an animal you've spent a good amount of time with), the photo has to be made by you, and it has to be cozy. Also, make sure to indicate that it's the pet photo that you're posting.

Extra carts: Capy Railroad Co. offered to provide one extra cozy cart for each train as a compensation for their rare and unusual scheduling mistake. These carts would unlock after a minimum 5 pet pics get submitted to a train. If that condition is met, the capystitians of Capy Railroad Co. will run their scientific methods to obtain the list most wishlisted cozy games for that group/train, and that train shall receive one extra cart with a cozy game that is wishlisted by at least 11% of members of the respective group. Posting more pet pics will result in capybaras (begrudgingly) going higher and higher on the group wishlist % with their game choice for the special cart. If a train doesn't reach the 5 pet pics threshold though, no additional cart would be added and the Capy Railroad Co. gets to save the budget for much needed spa visits and mandarins. If both trains reach the threshold, they both get an extra cart and the % rule applies to both trains separately. The final count will be performed after the ticket booth closes; you may post multiple pics in your comments, but only 1 pic per participant counts toward the total.

✾ Tickets sales stop at around ~~mid day~~ 7PM GMT on February 3rd, and then we'll count the submissions and announce the winner for the CGC mascot title, and the trains will depart for their little 3-day journeys, choo-choo. Make sure to be there on time.
That's it for the rules, have fun and let the coziest 🐶 one 😸 win.

Upd: here are the results for FCDSCGC-2023

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View attached image.

1 year ago*